Tamil Nadu power minister to lead a team to Delhi to discuss UDAY

Chennai, July 15 (IANS) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa on Friday told Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal that a team headed by the state Electricity Minister will visit Delhi to discuss the UDAY scheme.

Goyal, who also handles the coal, new and renewable energy portfolios independently met Jayalalithaa at the state secretariat.

During their meeting, Jayalalithaa reiterated to Goyal to consider her government’s request relating to joining the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) – a scheme for financial turnaround of power distribution companies.

She told Goyal that she had already requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in her letter dated October 23, 2015 to consider certain requests of the state government to ensure that the state finances are not adversely affected, while taking over the debt of TANGEDCO- the power distribution company.

She also requested that the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) and Power Finance Corporation (PFC) which are central public sector undertakings may extend co-operation by providing loans for both revenue and capital expenditure and also for the new power projects proposed by Tamil Nadu.

She told Goyal that Tamil Nadu has an installed capacity of 7,600 MW of wind power and is in a position to sell wind power to other states who require to fulfill their Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO).

Jayalaltihaa reiterated that it is absolutely essential to provide a dedicated green corridor to export the surplus power to other states.